Tech Data laughs at world market meltdown

Tech Data sailed its calendar Q2 sales and profits safely through into the sunny waters of double-digit growth aided by a favourable currency tailwind despite severe undertow from ebbing economies on both sides of the Atlantic.

The great IT distie ark managed to grow sales 18 per cent to $6.45bn as operating profits climbed 20 per cent to $78.8m. Roughly nine percentage points were attributed to the strengthening of certain foreign currencies in relation to the dollar.

CEO Bob Dutkowsky said the numbers were due to "strong execution" from the teams in all of its operating regions, "in spite of global macro-economic uncertainty and volatile markets".

Unlike rival broadliner Ingram Micro, which only grew in EMEA due to beneficial currency translations, Tech Data Q2 sales in Europe climbed 30 per cent (14 per cent on a Euro basis) to $3.75bn. Operating profits jumped 42 per cent to $33.9m.

And unlike Ingram, Tech made no mention of potential redundancies in EMEA on the back of a slowdown in consumer spending across the region.

Turnover from operations across the pond in North and Latin America rose at a much slower pace, up just 4 per cent to $2.7bn, as operating profits grew at a little under seven per cent to $47.6m.

Dutkowsky forecasted mid-single digit organic year-on-year sales growth in Q3 in local currencies and said the firm remained on track to exceed operating margin of 1.5 per cent before stock comp expenses in fiscal 2013. ®